Why setting goals is the secret to staying healthy and fit

Apart from David Beckham's gorgeousness, the only thing I know about football is that to win the game, you have to score goals. In life, to have a feeling of purpose, we need to set goals to drive us on. Setting plans for our future is an essential part of happiness. I believe that the ability to plan towards a life goal motivates us, it gives us determination, with sense of achievement and the ultimate benefit of reward.

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When looking at a lifestyle change, goal setting is a part of fitness, especially if you want to succeed. But to succeed you need a plan of attack, what type of physique, or level of fitness you want to achieve will dictate how you train and how you set your goals.

First find your motivation. Why are you dong it, and who are you dong it for? Sometimes if we are doing something for someone else's benefit, we will push harder. Health risks, the ability to be active with your children, to be a fit and healthy role model for your kids? To tighten and tone your body for all those dates, to get more dates? Whatever it is focus on that and think about it every time you work out.

Now we need a healthy mindset. To succeed you need to stop thinking of the gym as punishment, as a bad thing, as a pain in your butt. You are spending money to go to the gym or join a group class, you are not only investing money but your time, which is the most valuable currency out there. But please remember you are investing time when exercising, you are not wasting time.

By investing that hour at the gym, you are treating your body and yourself. Regular exercise reduces the risk of illnesses like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, even cancer. You can lower the risk of an early death, type 2 diabetes and exercise can help beat away depression. All of that and to top it off you will look and feel fabulous. It's amazing what shedding a few lbs does for a persons confidence. So with all of that, no more negative thoughts on the time spent exercising, it's time well invested.

Now you need to create a fitness program that will send you on the right path, keep you motivated and ultimately in time see the results you desire. Whatever fitness path you take I urge you to record your progress.

From your very first session, get in the habit of writing out your workout, making notes on the number of reps, the weight used, distance ran and the time it takes. These are all essential for reference to set goals and motivate. For example, your notes will read that the last time you walked into the gym you did 3 sets of 15 pushups. This gives you a target number you know you can achieve and so, should be the minimum number of reps you aim for.

Before attempting an exercise say to yourself "I'm going to DO 15 reps," not, "I'm going to try 15,"but "DO." I believe keeping a note on your workout program is great for progress. Be sure to write how the session was, if you felt weak, if certain weight was too heavy/too light. The more detail, the clearer the picture you will be able to paint. You may see certain patterns for example. Friday sessions may be a day you struggle regularly, maybe consider making this day a rest day, and workout on Saturday instead. You may start to notice how your lifestyle and diet starts to effect your performance.

By writing everything down you can see your progress, and with the results logged, you can see how hard you are working, and if you are on track to achieve your ultimate goals.

I find it helps to divide my goals into categories, for example:

Daily Goals

These could be to cut out snacking at work

Having a salad for lunch

Getting to the gym

Making a log of your workout

Weekly Goal

To train 5 days a week

To improve performance, really work for that extra rep, a quicker time, or a longer distance, whatever it is, seek for progression.

Keep referring to your exercise notes, like I mentioned if you managed 10 reps last week that's the minimum, lets go for 12.

Monthly Goal

This depends on you type of training and progress. But lets say you run 6k comfortably, by the end of the month you build up to try your first 10k.

So come on ladies, note pads out, get writing it down, and if we invest the time maybe we will all be able to bend it like Beckham.

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